Today was a 27ish mile training run that includes two sets of 4 miles at marathon goal pace (MGP), and miles 20 to 26 were a cut down on the track. 2 miles at MGP, 2 at half marathon pace (HGP) and 2 at 10k pace. We’ll that’s the theory of the workout. I’ve never manged to hit all those paces in the 3 times I’ve attempted the workout, but just getting through it is somewhat a success.

Today’s workout was somewhat similar to what we did in preparation for the Portland Marathon in 2009. The major differences being the hard mile on the track wasn’t there, instead of 2×5 miles at MGP today was 2×4 miles at MGP. Today’s workout went very similar to what I ran in the same race prep for Portland, not pace wise but overall results. I ran everything 10 seconds or faster today than August of 2009 leading to Portland.

The 8 miles at MGP were a little too fast as were my first two miles on the track. I felt fine until the 10k portion when it was just brutal. When I did this workout for Portland my 5th mile on the track was 15 seconds slower than MGP so I’m much happier with today’s results. During the last mile Steve made me back off on the first lap, I ran close to 8 minute pace, and then I managed to get back into MGP easily. The entire track session was a 6:17 pace so not too shabby.

Now to plan for what I’ll run at Boston. I think if I run conservatively I’ll go out at 6:25’s through the first 16 miles, then see what the hills bring and try and get back on pace to finish under 2:50. If I decide to let loose then the first 16 will be closer to 6:20 … I’m not sure what price I’ll pay later on for it though. I’ll post my race plan next weekend for anybody that’s curious, my goal for Boston will likely be somewhere between 2:47 and 2:50.

Steve discusses what we thought would be a good measure of a successful workout and also how he felt about his own run.

Also, Damon … one of two people I’ve been running with consistently this season had a tough day but pulled through. He’s just gotten back from a slight injury but he should be good by the time we run Portland in 5 weeks.

After my workouts the few months I decided to drop my training paces from a 2:55 marathon target to a 2:50, which makes each of my paces around 10 seconds a mile faster. Going into today’s run I knew it would be very difficult so anything I could manage once I got on the track without completely blowing up would have been a victory. I just couldn’t manage it once we hit the 10k part, I was just a little slow at the HMGP as well but all in all this is the best I’ve ever run this workout so I’m pleased. My 2:50 target paces are:

It was amusing, as soon as finished the last mile targeting half marathon pace instead of speeding up I just slowed down. It was really nice to have some of the people not racing Portland on the track handing out water and Gatorade and more than that encouraging us to keep pushing. I could have blown up a lot earlier if Mike hadn’t been there with his spatula threatening to scrape me off the track. Thanks Mike, Ken, Mus, Kristen for the support.

Steve has been running with us so we can’t really complain about the workouts anymore. I recorded a video interview of him after the workout that I’ll post later this weekend.